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IBM’s Watson Supercomputer Now Being Used in Healthcare

When IBM announced that they were developing a supercomputing system called “Watson,” many fans of literary icon Sherlock Holmes thought of the London-based detective’s trusted friend Dr. John
…

When IBM announced that they were developing a supercomputing system called “Watson,” many fans of literary icon Sherlock Holmes thought of the London-based detective’s trusted friend Dr. John Watson—and not the computer’s actual namesake, IBM founder Thomas Watson. But the mistake isn’t that far off after all, for like Dr. John Watson, IBM’s Watson supercomputer is also beginning to practice medicine.

Transcript

1.
44 / Journal of AHIMA May 14
PAGING
DR.WATSON
IBM’S WATSON SUPERCOMPUTER NOW
BEING USED IN HEALTHCARE
By Howard Lee
WHEN IBM ANNOUNCED that they were devel-
oping a supercomputing system called “Watson,”
many fans of literary icon Sherlock Holmes thought
of the London-based detective’s trusted friend Dr.
John Watson—and not the computer’s actual name-
sake, IBM founder Thomas Watson. But the mistake
isn’t that far off after all, for like Dr. John Watson,
IBM’s Watson supercomputer is also beginning to
practice medicine.
Since IBM Watson rose to national fame, and
proved itself by competing and winning against
Jeopardy!’s all time champions Ken Jennings and
Brad Rutter, the supercomputer has moved on to
practical applications—including being “taught” to
understand the complexities of healthcare.
Yes, “taught,” and not programmed, because IBM
Watson uses “cognitive computing,” a completely
different type of computing not found in your desk-
top PC. Cognitive computing allows users the ability
to enter mass quantities of structured and unstruc-
tured data from various sources, and ask the com-
puter to give back a set of structured answers based
only on the most relevant pieces of the data. While
it seems like science fiction, and a future answer to
the overwhelmingly vast mountains of currently
untapped health data, there are pilot programs that
have recently launched that use Watson to improve
healthcare processes and treatment.
A Computer with Cognitive Ability
Since the 1940s, computing has relied on humans
programming a set of instructions into a structured
database and then retrieving the answers from that
data located within the system. This is done using
software to program a central processing unit (CPU)
and using A to B logic systems. Called the von Neu-
mann–style, the system of computing was first laid
out by Hungarian American mathematician John
von Neumann and over the last 70 years has been
used by every computer company, including IBM,
for its method of creating usable structured data to
perform structured tasks. This system, while very
good at performing a set of programmed calcula-
tions very fast, can’t interact with its human coun-
terparts to analyze data, understand natural lan-
guages, or combine structured and unstructured
data into one usable system. This means that nearly
all of the world’s computer systems are simply bril-
liant idiots.
A new computer system was needed that com-
bined structured data, unstructured data, natural
languages, and data analysis that could learn from
other systems without the need for a human pro-
grammer to create software for every scenario. This
style of computing system is cognitive computing,
and is the type being employed by the IBM Watson

2.
Journal of AHIMA May 14 / 45
Paging Dr. Watson
cognitive computer system.
When IBM’s computer teams thought about creating this type
of system, the real task was getting the computer system to learn
from structured and unstructured data, then combine that data
with natural languages that humans use everyday to come up
with answers that make sense and are completely useable and
practical. It aims to use the same data used by structured com-
puter systems, just in more advanced ways.
While this might sound like artificial intelligence, cognitive
computing still relies on humans for part of the work—it is a true
human-machine interface that can create new computing func-
tions that does not require tedious software programming for
each new step. Unique to cognitive computing is the ability for
supercomputers like Watson to learn from internal and external
inputs, and creates the programming it needs to solve a given
problem. IBM Watson does this by processing a question in a
similar manner as a human does. It starts by analyzing the ques-
tion as input, then generates a set of features and hypotheses by
looking across data it has consumed as content. The computer
then seeks the best potential response to the question.
Using hundreds of reasoning algorithms embedded within
the system, Watson does a deep comparison of the language
of the question itself as well as each of the candidate answers.
Then one or more scores are produced for the algorithms based
on the relevance of the answer, with respect to that algorithm’s
focus area (i.e., temporal, spatial, or others). It also scores an-
swers based on contextual relevance. The cognitive capabilities
can then be brought to the end users through any channel—mo-
bile device, tablet, desktop computer, etc. This ability to receive
data from a supercomputer through any device has the ability to
drive positive disruption in any industry—including healthcare.
Practical Uses for Watson in Healthcare
The following is an example of how a cognitive computing sys-
tem like IBM Watson could be used to improve healthcare pro-
cesses and better analyze vast amounts of health information. A
doctor gets a visit from a patient who has diabetes. The doctor
determines he needs to do a blood sugar A1C test, a blood draw,
an EKG, a blood pressure check, a cholesterol test, and a physi-
cal exam. While this might sound routine, the way a supercom-
puter like IBM Watson analyzes the results is not.
First, the results of a blood sugar test with a meter are usually
logged in a patient’s diary and not as part of a database. Since
it’s on paper, it is free text data and thus considered unstruc-
tured data. The A1C is done and logged into another system to
get the overall three month reading. The blood draw goes to the
lab, where technicians will look for abnormalities in the blood
that can affect the kidneys, liver, heart, and cholesterol levels.
Blood pressure is usually done and hand written in a chart, cre-
ating more unstructured data that is not in the electronic health
record (EHR). EKG results are checked by a doctor, but again
stored as unstructured data in the health record. Finally, the
physical exam results are typically written down by a doctor as
a progress note or dictated exam and not entered as structured
data in the EHR.
Using the typical EHR or other health IT computer system to
give the doctor a real time diagnosis on this patient in order to
prescribe a treatment would be very hard given that both struc-
tured and unstructured data has been collected in a variety of
source systems or mediums and stored in several places. Even
for the human doctor it can be difficult to determine treatment
steps, since the collected information can get lost or be misread
by the doctor or other healthcare staffers.
One in five diagnoses are incorrect or incomplete, and nearly
1.5 million medication errors are made every year, according to
a 2013 study by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The
amount of medical information available to providers is dou-
bling every five years, and much of the data is unstructured, the
study says. Healthcare IT is moving rapidly and developing oth-
er structured and unstructured data via EHRs and mobile de-
vices like tablets and smartphones that include data not entered
in any master database. As a result many doctors can get lost in
the data when trying to treat patients and determine diagnosis
or treatment. Add to this mix the mountains of white papers and
medical journals that a doctor must read to stay on top of what is
happening in the healthcare field—plus the ever growing use of
the Internet, blogs, social media, and healthcare expos to relay
important health information—and it is evident that there is just
too much information from too many different sources for any
human or typical computer to analyze in healthcare. There is
too much to do and analyze, and not enough resources to do it.
The current healthcare system is doomed to keep making
mistakes not because there is not enough data, but because
there is too much data in too many places to be useful. Most
healthcare computer systems can only store and retrieve data,
but not do much more beyond that. Another shortcoming of a
programmed structured data system is that it can’t understand
natural languages or analyze disparate but related data in an
unstructured form. If a computer could understand and analyze
both structured and unstructured data and the relationship be-
tween the two, a doctor would have a system that could become
a true partner in healthcare by analyzing Big Data and returning
HEALTH IT SOOTHSAYERS believe that Watson has the
potential to revolutionize healthcare and the use and man-
agement of health information. But a stark reality of the
present must first be overcome—how do you get Watson to
talk to different healthcare organization’s EHRs and access
data in other health IT systems when hospitals don’t talk to
each other? Watson will only work if healthcare profession-
als are willing to share data with each other for the benefit
of all and not shutter information behind locked doors in
the name of protecting proprietary assets. Health informa-
tion exchange must also become more robust for Watson
to succeed. Health information management professionals
have a role in facilitating that private, secure, and autho-
rized information exchange and should help establish those
data networks, links, and agreements.
For Watson to Thrive, Providers Need
to Connect

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46 / Journal of AHIMA May 14
Paging Dr. Watson
the best and most relevant data for use in making a diagnosis.
Enter Watson, which through its cognitive computing has
the potential to look at all of these structured and unstructured
health information sources and pull together analysis that like-
ly will improve processes and treatment plans. While the IBM
Watson cognitive computing system is still very new, it is not an
untested system.
Watson’s Healthcare Case Studies
Below are four case studies that illustrate how Watson is being
used in fields like cancer research, supply chain management,
and consumer empowerment to help create better outcomes in
healthcare.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), the world’s
oldest and largest private cancer center, is battling an insidious
disease that strikes one in three women and one in two men
during their lifetimes, according to data published by MSKCC in
2012. It has become nearly impossible to find anyone who has
not been affected by cancer in some way.
When trying to find a computer solution to help analyze their
vast amount of data, MSKCC ran into a problem. The center has
thousands of cancer patients with different kinds of cancer, and
as many different types of treatments. With so many treatments
and so much Big Data across as many as 41 different systems,
the daunting challenge of analyzing such disparate information
was one the typical computer couldn’t handle. Add to that doc-
tors and researchers creating medical white papers and journals
on the research being done at MSKCC, and now the organiza-
tion had a great deal of Big Data with no way to really use any
of the data to improve patient outcomes. Looking for a solution,
MSKCC’s CEO Dr. Craig Thompson joined forces with the IBM
Watson team to teach IBM Watson about their breast and lung
cancer research at the center and create a system that will al-
low MSKCC to use the best available data to treat their cancer
patients. IBM Watson used its cognitive computing natural lan-
guage and decision support system to find patterns in unstruc-
tured information, mine patient data, analyze structured data,
and look for disease patterns that most closely approximate
each individual’s case.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is now using Wat-
son’s ability to sort through massive amounts of data, from
clinical knowledge, case histories, and genomic and molecular
data, that will help oncologists diagnose and treat an individ-
ual’s cancer. But unlike traditional Big Data computer systems
that simply push data around without analyzing what data is
truly helpful to the oncologists, Watson actually understands
both structured and unstructured data and works with a human
counterpart to actually learn from both Big Data systems and
simple doctors notes. Over time, the hope is that Watson will
become a real part of the MSKCC oncology team.
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson) is one of the top
cancer centers in the US. But like MSKCC, they too have the in-
ability to truly use the vast research from their oncology team
and combine it with their clinical trial data to come up with bet-
ter outcomes for cancer patients or create targeted treatment for
patients. Within their healthcare EHR system is all the typical
information that constitutes Big Data, along with clinical trial
data and mountains of doctors’ private notes—which make up
the backbone of their research. This has caused a Big Data di-
vide between MD Anderson’s doctors and clinical researchers
who work remotely from each other and rarely share data on
the patients they work with. MD Anderson is now working with
IBM Watson to teach the supercomputer how to work with its
doctors and researchers. The project is called “MD Anderson’s
Oncology Expert Advisor (OEA).” The OEA helps doctors and
researchers by integrating the knowledge from both groups to
advance its goal of treating patients with the most effective, safe,
and evidence-based standard of care available. Oncology Ex-
pert Advisor provides a 360 degree view of each cancer patient,
which will help physicians better understand the patient’s data,
history of treatment, test results and vital information that has
been hidden in the files of every MD Anderson medical facility =
the patient has visited in the past. By understanding and analyz-
ing data in a patient’s profile as well as information published
in medical literature, the OEA can then work with a doctor to
create evidence-based treatment and management options that
are unique to that patient. These options include not only stan-
dard approved therapies, but also clinical trial protocols. MD
Anderson’s OEA is expected to aid doctors to improve the future
care of cancer patients by using and comparing patients’ data-
driven information—information that was previously unavail-
able for complete electronic analysis.
MD Buyline, Inc.
MD Buyline Inc. has been a leading provider of healthcare clini-
cal and technology research for over 30 years with more than 50
percent of US hospitals using their solution to track and improve
financial performance across the healthcare supply chain. A
problem most hospitals face is how can they fill the procure-
ment needs of their hospital staff while staying within their bud-
get. Hospital administrators must find a way to manage clinical
evidence, research, analysis, and price data from several differ-
ent database systems and competing needs from departments
within the hospital, who are all competing for resources. This
puts a strain on supply chain management systems, and results
in an estimated $5 billion wasted annually due to these ineffi-
ciencies, according to an educational paper published by GHX
in October 2012 titled “The Current State of the Implantable De-
vice Supply Chain.”
MD Buyline is now working with IBM Watson to teach the
supercomputer how to understand their supply chain man-
agement and decision support systems. The goal is for Watson
to help deliver a transformative procurement system that will
enable informative comparison of medical options. The IBM
Watson solution is expected to drive optimal purchasing deci-
sions for hospital administrators, and eventually could offer
socially collaborative and educational support for all hospital
and healthcare teams worldwide by leveraging a shared base of

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Journal of AHIMA May 14 / 47
Paging Dr. Watson
information—given that health information exchange advances
to the point of enabling this connectivity.
Now that healthcare reform has become part of the landscape,
reimbursement models will be shifting to an outcomes-based
approach. It is more critical than ever that healthcare providers
improve outcomes. MD Buyline’s procurement advisor is work-
ing to help deliver these improved outcomes through its scal-
able IBM Watson cognitive computing platform. MD Buyline’s
application is intended to empower users and aid in finding un-
biased clinical evidence, research, and price information.
Welltok, Inc.
Welltok, Inc. is a consumer-centric healthcare company that is
changing the way patients and their caregivers deal with health-
care by offering programs that reward consumers for taking
charge of improving their healthcare. Welltok’s CaféWell, part
of their Health Optimization Platform, is a web-based com-
munity that provides consumers with healthcare resources,
social networking, gaming, and site personalization. The site is
built to create a new supply chain, connecting health plans and
health systems to consumers through an organized ecosystem
of health and wellness resources.
CaféWell’s goal is to help healthcare managers benefit from
increased consumer engagement, member retention, and im-
prove brand affinity. Consumers are rewarded for starting a
healthy lifestyle. Most consumers lead busy lives that make it
hard to follow the right health decisions. Many consumers also
find it difficult to find the right information to make the per-
sonalized healthcare choices. The CaféWell Concierge, which
is powered by IBM Watson, personalizes the health experience
by using IBM Watson’s natural language and analysis abilities,
as well as the ability to learn from the consumer. Watson helps
empower the consumer to make positive healthcare decisions
by providing customized guidance on activities and behaviors
tailored to a user’s interests and aligned to their incentives. The
application is also available through mobile devices, tablets,
and personal computers. Welltok is one of the first companies
to take advantage of Watson and use it for consumer-facing ap-
plications.
As Watson’s Ecosystem Grows, Competitors Emerge
IBM just announced the creation of the IBM Watson Ecosystem
that will help major industries like travel, retail, and healthcare
leverage Watson cognitive computing. Those working with IBM
will get open access to the platform that will allow them to build
customized applications. IBM business partners will be able
to develop embedded applications on the Watson Developer
Cloud, and have access to the Watson platform and its associat-
ed tools and methodology. The hope is IBM’s partners can take
Watson and develop a wide array of products that leverage its
supercomputing abilities. The ecosystem would bring Watson
to the masses, and potentially be made available to end clients
in business models such as business to business, business to
consumer, or consumer to consumer. Many technology experts
expect that giving developers access to the Watson Hub—which
includes cloud access, a content store, Watson hosting services,
and tech support—will drive the development of more health-
care applications. Soon it is expected that Watson will be able to
work with single system EHRs or multiple disparate EHRs and
securely access the vital health information contained therein
for optimizing research. Such access would need to come with
various privacy measures, which would take time to develop.
When it comes to cognitive computing, IBM Watson is the
leader at the moment. But competitors like Microsoft and Apple
have also begun working on their own systems. The competi-
tion is likely to be a good thing for healthcare, helping foster all
cognitive computing system products.
So while it may be some time before your local hospital pages
Dr. Watson for advice on your medical ailments, these projects
utilizing the technology show that the use of supercomputers in
healthcare has already begun. ¢
Howard Lee (wireheadtec@gmail.com) is chief information officer at Wire-
head Technology.